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''CHRISTMAS GIFT!'' 

'•'C/iristrnns-Nig/it in the Quarters^'' by Irwin Russell^ is reproduced for tlie first 
time from the original manuscript in the Mississippi Department of Archives and 
History by the Mississippi Historical Society^ in co-operation with the Depart- 
mejit of Archives and History and Gordon Marks & Company, Inc., Jackson, 
December, 1970. 



ORI^IlfAL E-'INUSCRIPT OF "CHHISTMAS ITIGHT IL' THE ^^UAHTERS 

BY 
IRWIN RUSSELL 



"There are books tliat are 'xritten ayid 
puhlis/ied iscith high hopes and anihitious 
lof/gings, hut this volume is in the nature of 
a memorial to its author. It represents the 
results of the brief literary career of IR WIN 
RUSSliT.J. of -Mississippi, 'xho zvas boni at 
Port (Gibson, Mississippi, on the 3d of June, 
/(V5.->, and zi-ho died at Nezo Orleans on the 
23d of December, 1S79. . . . 

'^Irzjcin Russell was among the first — if not 
t/ie very first — of S out Iter n irriters to ap- 
preciate the literary possibilities of the negro 
character, and of the unique relations existing 
betzveen the tv:o races before the war, aiid was 



among /^■^■^^■^^^B^i?/;/. The opinion 
of an u^^^^^^^^^lfht not to go for 
much, but it seejns to me that some of Irwin 
Russell's }iegro-character studies rise to the 
level of wliat, in a large way, zve term litera- 
ture. His negro-operetta, "Christmas-Night 
in the Quarters," is ini>nitable. It combines 
the features of a character study with a series 
of bold and striking plantation pictures that 
have tiever been surpassed. In this remark- 
able group . . . the old life before the war is 
reproduced with a fidelity that is niarvelous." 

Joel Chandler Harris, in the hi.troduction to 
Poems by Irwin RussuJI, 188S. 






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